This year at CPAC there was no panel focused on the evils of gay marriage. NOM did have a small table in the basement of the hotel with the other exhibitors, though nothing as grand as the massive, expensive booths and tents of the gun-rights groups or the anti-tax activists.

Will 2014 (or perhaps 2016) become known as the "Year Of The Marijuana Voter"? This question can now be seriously asked, because the issue of radically reforming marijuana laws seems to be growing bigger and more imperative with each passing week.

In many ways, CPAC is caught in exactly the same bind as the Republican Party. The party's leaders know that to survive in the long term it must moderate its positions and expand its base. But they're still in the grips of an extremist fringe that just won't let that happen.

Had the Log Cabin Republicans not endorsed Romney, they would now have more pull within the GOP. They would be able to tell GOP leaders, in the midst of the handwringing over the party's "demographic problem," that had Romney backed off his harsh line on gay rights, they could have helped him win.

Log Cabin Republicans aren't the only ones Frank offended with this insensitive comparison. "Uncle Tom" is a racially loaded slavery reference, and his decision to use it here was entirely inappropriate.

The #negrospotting meme revealed an uncomfortable truth about the Democratic base: that diversity is supported if said "diverse" person knows his or her place. Dare to step outside what is expected of you, and you will be ridiculed. This is the game that we play with gay Republicans.

No one uttered the word "gay" from the podium, nor did anyone want to want to speak about the issue when asked. But no one ever attained their civil rights from being quiet. Keep your hugs and kisses. Just give me full equality.

The context in which he uses the word suggests not only that Savage meant to demean and degrade, but that he meant to demean and degrade by comparing GOProud to a particular set of gay men (bottoms) and all those who enjoy receiving penetrative sex.

To actually endorse a candidate who calls for stripping you of rights seems totally crazy and pathological -- unless perhaps you don't believe the candidate will ever do such a thing. And that is actually what gay Republicans who are voting for Romney will tell you privately.